Prosecutors to talk to Rove on firings

Former Bush aide Karl Rove is set to be interviewed Friday by a special prosecutor investigating the firing of nine U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration in 2007, a source close to the inquiry said.

U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy of Connecticut is investigating the firings after a Justice Department probe found that political factors infected the Department’s hiring practices and may have affected its prosecutorial decisions under President George W. Bush.

Story Continued Below

The planned interview of Rove appeared to be one of a series of interviews Dannehy has conducted with Justice Department officials and others involved in the decision to dismiss the prosecutors. There is no indication that the special prosecutor is singling Rove out, a source close to the probe said.

Rove’s deputy, J. Scott Jennings, was interviewed by Dannehy in Washington in February.

A lawyer for Rove, Robert Luskin, declined to confirm Rove’s interview.

See also

“Since Nora Dannehy was appointed, Karl has said publicly he was going to cooperate with her investigation,” Luskin said. “He said he’d do whatever it takes to cooperate. What form that takes, whether it’s a deposition or an interview, or whatever, I’m not going to discuss.”

A spokesman for Dannehy, Tom Carson, also refused to confirm the plan to talk with Rove, which was first reported by the Washington Post.

The House Judiciary Committee is conducting a parallel investigation into alleged politicization at the Justice Department. Rove and former Bush White House Counsel Harriet Miers are expected to testify as part of that probe in the coming weeks, but no firm date has been set.

One focus of Dannehy’s work, according to a source close to the probe, has been whether Justice Department officials were truthful in their statements about the reasons for hiring and firing decisions.

Dannehy was appointed by former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey in September 2008, following the release of an internal investigation.

Dannehy is reported to be paying considerable attention to the dismissal of David Iglesias, who served as the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico and was investigating political corruption by Democrats at the time of the 2006 election. His firing followed complaints about his performance from then Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.)

A lawyer for Domenici, Lee Blalack, declined to comment on the former senator’s dealings with Dannehy’s probe.